--- title: Petition To Carry Guns at GOP Convention Has 40,000 Signatures description: A petition that calls for the open carry of guns at the Republican Convention this summer has garnered over 40,000 signatures. canonical: https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-28T11:40:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:15:25.456Z article:section: Politics og:title: Petition To Carry Guns at GOP Convention Has 40,000 Signatures og:description: A petition that calls for the open carry of guns at the Republican Convention this summer has garnered over 40,000 signatures. og:url: https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Petition To Carry Guns at GOP Convention Has 40,000 Signatures twitter:description: A petition that calls for the open carry of guns at the Republican Convention this summer has garnered over 40,000 signatures. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Petition to Allow Guns at GOP Convention Signed by 40,000  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 28, 2016 11:40 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 28, 2016 11:40 AM UTC A petition that calls for firearms to be openly carried at the Republican convention this summer has so far garnered over 40,000 signatures. Ohio, where the convention will be held in July, is an open-carry state. But the venue for the convention, the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, does not allow weapons on the premises. [The petition](https://www.change.org/p/quicken-loans-arena-allow-open-carry-of-firearms-at-the-quicken-loans-arena-during-the-rnc-convention-in-july-2), which was posted last Monday on Change.org, says this policy “is a direct affront to the Second Amendment and puts all attendees at risk.” As of the morning of March 28 it had received 41,574 signatures. [According to USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/03/27/donald-trump-ted-cruz-john-kasich-guns-open-carry-cleveland-convention-republicans/82321374/), GOP frontrunner Donald Trump was recently asked about the petition. He said he was “a very, very strong person for the Second Amendment” but “I have not seen the petition. I want to see what it says. I want to read the fine print.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/"},"headline":"Petition to Allow Guns at GOP Convention Signed by 40,000","datePublished":"2016-03-28T11:40:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:15:25.456Z","description":"Says ban is a \"direct affront to the Second Amendment\"","url":"https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election topic","Gun Control","Ohio","Guns"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4273414/petition-guns-republican-convention/","name":"Petition to Allow Guns at GOP Convention Signed by 40,000"}}]}] ```